Project Description

LIGHTING THE SAILS 2014

taking an iconic building on a dramatic journey through time

Sydney Opera House
Sydney

In 2014, 59 Productions undertook a commission from Vivid LIVE festival to create a new projected artwork for the sails of the Sydney Opera House, the city’s most visible public event. 59 Productions took the iconic building on a dramatic journey through time – from the birth of architecture and civilization through to the pinnacle of human and technological achievement.

Thronging audiences gathered across the city saw the Opera House born again, from its conception and design through the extraordinary construction process, before experimenting with an extraordinarily diverse range of surface finishes, colours and textures. Projecting the building into an imaginary future, it was then subjected to extremes of natural forces and reached a point of near-destruction, before undergoing a triumphant apotheosis, and beginning its cosmic journey once again.

The piece was covered by press all over the world, its spectacular imagery providing not just a powerful use of a vast architectural canvas, but a sense of history and place for one of the world’s most iconic structures.

‘SYDNEY HAS POSED US AN ENTIRELY NEW CHALLENGE: THAT OF BRINGING AN ENTIRE BUILDING TO LIFE.’